During a surgical procedure, fluid, such as water or air, can be supplied from a fluid source through one or more conduits to a patient or into a surgical site. The fluid can be introduced into the surgical site for a variety of reasons, such as, for example, to enable joint distention, provide a clear view of the surgical site, and/or extract debris resulting from mechanical debriding, coagulation and ablation, or through the use of ultrasonic devices.
Current technology for determining fluid pressure in the one or more conduits includes using a disc-shaped diaphragm member that is assembled into a cassette and located on the downstream side of the conduit before the fluid enters the patient or the surgical site. Once the fluid in the conduit is pressurized, the diaphragm member expands and the resultant force is held against a load cell. The load cell sends an electric signal to a controller that convers the electric signal into a pressure value. The cassette including the diaphragm member is part of the conduit, and after the surgical procedure the cassette and diaphragm member are disposed with the conduit.
As may be readily apparent, the current technology requires multiple components (i.e., diaphragms, load sensors, cassettes), which may increase the cost and complexity for determining the pressure of fluid in a conduit. The current technology may also be prone to pressure spikes that are generated by the pulsations of a peristaltic pump because the diaphragm to load cell setup is extremely sensitive. Therefore, these systems may require electronic filtering schemes to reduce the pressure spikes, which may undesirably add cost and complexity to the system. Also, properly assembling the cassette and diaphragm may be time consuming and cumbersome, which may undesirably add time to surgical procedure. Moreover, disposing of the cassette and diaphragm member after every surgical procedure is costly and wasteful.
It may therefore be desirable to improve the current state of the art. For example, it may be desirable to have a system and method for quickly, easily, and accurately determining fluid pressure inside a conduit. It may be desirable to have a system that allows for a conduit to be quickly and easily installed in the system and removed from the system. It may be desirable to have a system for determining fluid pressure in a conduit that can be reused for multiple surgical procedures